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User blog:TheAtomicLight/The Craig Gerber Interview
It seems that Sofia the First: Forever Royal has become available to the majority of the world who have Disney Junior and/or Disney Channel. This ends a series which lasted six years, four seasons, and a hundred and eight episodes, which started off with a TV movie. It also included several extended length specials along the way. In celebration of its end, Craig Gerber, creator and executive producer of Sofia the First, graciously accepted my request for an interview with him. I thank him dearly for participating and taking the time to respond. I hope you enjoy reading this exclusive interview... Sofia the First Wiki: To begin with, how did you get into the animation business? Gerber: I had been working as a live-action screenwriter when a friend of mine working at DisneyToon Studios asked me to write a “franchise bible” for the Disney Fairies franchise. This involved finding a way to bring together the Tinker Bell movies, Disney Fairies books and Peter Pan into a unified mythology. They liked my work and then hired me to write a series of Tinker Bell shorts, followed by the first production drafts of what eventually became The Pixie Hollow Games and The Pirate Fairy. During this time, I was introduced to Nancy Kanter at Disney Junior, which led to my career in television animation. Sofia the First Wiki: Is Sofia the First something you created from scratch when hired by Disney Junior, or was this something already in development? Gerber: When I first met Nancy Kanter, she told me that they had been trying to make a series about a young princess but hadn’t found the right idea yet. She casually offered me the opportunity to pitch an idea if I came up with one. While stuck in traffic near the Disney Animation building later that week, I came up with the idea for Sofia the First. Sofia the First Wiki: What was the length of time a script for Sofia usually took? Gerber: The scripting process for each episode took 10-12 weeks. We would have to pitch the initial idea to the Network. If it was approved, we would then write up a synopsis called a premise and submit that for notes. Occasionally, they would decide they didn’t like the idea so much and we’d have to start over a new one. But if they liked it, we would then write an outline next, get notes on that, then go through about 5 drafts of the script. Sofia the First Wiki: What did your job as story editor entail? Gerber: Story editor is what they call the head writer in animation. I managed the writing staff and oversaw the development of ideas and scripts, as well as setting the course for each season’s story arcs. I gave notes on and rewrote premises, outlines and scripts. The story editor must also interface, and often negotiate, with the network regarding their story notes. Sofia the First: Wiki: Was Elena of Avalor the reason why Michael G. Stern took over as story editor on Sofia? I'm sure the scripts were in very capable hands, but since you were still producer, you would’ve presumably still have overseen the scripts? Gerber: My responsibilities on Elena of Avalor made it necessary to elevate Michael G. Stern to Story Editor. However, I still oversaw the general story direction for Season 4 and directly oversaw the music (to the point of co-writing many of the lyrics). I also read and gave notes on at least one draft of every premise, outline and script. The big change was that I did not rewrite scripts during Season 4, except for Day of the Sorcerers and the finale, which I wrote with Michael. Sofia the First Wiki: How often did the cast perform together? Gerber: We very rarely had more than one actor perform at a time, as I find it makes it more difficult to focus on each individual actor’s performance. However, for certain episodes, where a few characters interacted a lot, we would bring in those actors at the same time so they could enhance each other’s performance. The Little Witch was one example, where we brought in all four main characters of that episode at the same time. Sofia the First Wiki: How different is writing a song to writing a regular script, and fitting that into the script? Gerber: During the outlining process, we would figure out where the song should go and what it should be about. For our show, the song had to serve a strong story purpose, whether it was illustrating a character’s want or point of view, showing a conflict of ideas, illustrating the theme, or accompanying an action sequence. Sofia the First Wiki: Depending on when you were renewed (or even the case of Elena as it's still going), how far would you plan new stories to be prepared? Gerber: For Sofia, which was only semi-serialized in the 4th season, we would not need to plan too far in advance. At the beginning of each season, we would have a general idea of some stories we wanted to tell. For Elena, which has become highly serialized in Season 2, we plotted out some story arcs at the beginning of the series and others at the beginning of each season. Sofia the First Wiki: Did you have the idea of Avalor being a kingdom of its own and being trapped within the Amulet at the beginning of StF? Gerber: No. We did not plan that from the beginning. It came up when we were developing Season 3 of Sofia the First. I’m pretty sure the idea of a princess trapped in the amulet was Michael G. Stern’s idea. The idea that Avalor was a kingdom came up when I discovered that we would have the opportunity to create a series about Disney’s first Latina princess. Sofia the First Wiki: Who decided that Whatnaught shouldn't talk like the other animals? Since he is still making his own kind of noise, is there someone actually doing those noises? Gerber: Jamie Mitchell, my fellow Executive Producer of Sofia and director of all the episodes, had the idea that Whatnaught wouldn’t talk. His noises are sound effects. Sofia the First Wiki: Sometimes you get cast as incidentals and sometimes even your own kids. Do you see yourselves as actors and how do you get picked for the roles? Gerber: Whenever I’ve acted, it is because we needed someone at the last minute. It’s only happened a few times. My children expressed an interest in being on the show so I auditioned them for a few minor roles which seemed like a good fit. I played their auditions for other key creatives and Casting to make sure they sounded as good as I thought they did. They enjoy acting but I don’t think either of them want to make a career out of it. Sofia the First Wiki: Is there any plots that you tried to work in, but couldn't? Gerber: There are many stories that we terminated, whether it was because we couldn’t crack them or couldn’t get them approved by the Network. Dozens of story ideas and over 25 premises were killed over the course of the series. Sofia the First Wiki: The Amulet summons princesses, but Mulan isn't one. So, how does that work? Gerber: I suppose that some people are so royal on the inside, they are princesses in spirit. Sofia the First Wiki: I found despite the importance of Sofia releasing Elena and helping her defeat , she isn't referenced in Elena of Avalor, the opposite of how Elena was still referenced in Sofia the First (even in Forever Royal). Is there a conscience effort to not mention her? Gerber: There is not a conscious effort to not mention Sofia, but there hasn’t been a reason to. Elena’s trials and tribulations do not involve Sofia at this point. If Elena was mentioned in Sofia, there was probably a story reason to do so. Sofia the First Wiki: Were there any discussions to include Birk Balthazar (Sofia's birth father) in Forever Royal? Gerber: No, because he was lost at sea and presumed dead. Sofia the First Wiki: Was Queen Lorelei's death an indirect result of using the wishing well? And was the specific cause of her death brought on by giving birth to the twins? Gerber: Queen Lorelei died because of complications from giving birth to the twins. Given the wishing well’s mischievous tendencies, Roland felt that the wishing well was to blame for her death. It is not an entirely unfair accusation. Sofia the First Wiki: Was the first Storykeeper's goal to always have successors? Because he fills up an entire library with unfinished books he couldn't possibly finish in his lifetime. Gerber: I’ve filled up my bookshelves and nightstand with plenty of books that I probably won’t wind up reading (despite best intentions). I’m sure he thought he’d get around to them all. Sofia the First Wiki: Would the first Storykeeper have transformed back into the archway once Sofia left the Secret Library? Gerber: I’m not sure what this question means. What Sofia sees in the Secret Library are magical apparitions. They can appear and disappear at will. Sofia the First Wiki: How much research do you do when bringing back a Disney Princess and creating the Wicked 9? 'Gerber: I’m sure Michael and the staff writers did their research when developing the Wicked 9 subplot. Sofia the First Wiki: Is there a favourite character you like writing for? Gerber: , followed closely by . Sofia the First Wiki: Finally, is there anything new you've been working on that you'd like to plug? Gerber: I’m developing several new animated series ideas with Disney Junior, but I cannot reveal what any of them are...yet. Stay tuned! Thank you for the thoughtful questions and all your hard work on the Sofia wiki!